Alexa/Arlo speak detections

[smesser16]

Lets get the app updated so the Alexa can speak the Alro's motion detection alerts. I appreciate the phone notifications, BUT if I'm in my home walking around I normally don't have my phone on me and would like to be vocally notified if there's motion detected around the outside of my home without having to go through lengthy IT "hacks" to get Alexa to vocalize the detection. I believe it would be a beneficial and a great way to upsell your system. Hoping this gets added soon 

[AntonyFamily]

I can't take credit for this and don't have the source link but found a workaround through Google search.  This might qualify as a "lengthy IT hack" as noted by the original author but helps bridge the gap until Arlo delivers native notification functionality in their Alexa skill.  Following is the general approach:

• Enable the Notify Me skill in Alexa and allow notifications
• Ask Alexa to open Notify Me, which will trigger a message to your registered email account with an account code and links to instructions
• Create an IFTTT account if you don't already have one
• Link your Arlo account in IFTTT
• Create an IFTTT recipe with the Arlo motion detection trigger as the IF THIS condition and Webhooks as the THEN THAT action.  You'll need to populate the Webhooks parameters with the url, message, etc. and your account information based on the Notify Me instructions.

Presto!  You can now receive Arlo notifications on Alexa and you can use the IFTTT/Notify Me combination to generate Alexa notifications for other things that aren't yet natively supported. 

[AntonyFamily]

This is the Reddit comment where I found the Alexa notification workaround.  The comment includes a litte more detail on how to populate the IFTTT Webhooks parameters for NotifyMe.

[Stratman59]

Thanks for this, i followed the instructions. I can now get my echo to show a green notification ring when movement is detected but it still won't give me a verbal message to wake me up if there's an intruder.  I'll wake in the morning and see the green ring and I can then ask for my notifications and alexa will tell me Arlo has detected movement, not a lot of use really. Am i missing something?

[AntonyFamily]

I don't know the gory details of Alexa notifications but this seems to be the default behavior.  I don't know if there are other notification-enabled Alexa skills that just announce without prompting.  In some respects it makes sense for the Alexa UI model; Alexa won't just announce a notification without request, confirming that someone is there to hear it. 

[Meow]

I agree! Was just looking to see if Alexa could do that. Is this being worked or is there any intention to create this in the future? 

[sep2li]

+1 for this REQUIREMENT. It's not an idea, it's a requirement that IF Arlo advertises Alexa integration, Alexa must be able to notify me if there's motion somewhere and switch that that camera on an Echo Show. I'm seriously considering returning my pack of 4 Arlo2s given that both the Alexa as well as the IFTTT implementations (hello, ability to trigger custom modes???) are extremely limited and basically worthless.

[ctcook]

I had this working through smartthings, but that integration kept changing the mode to disarmed.  I had to remove the Arlo smart app from smartthings because of this.  Seems silly that the Arlo skill doesn't pass the motion sensor information to Alexa.

[MDunk100]

I keep looking for the motion feature in the Alexa skill also. Not only could you have vioce alerts, but if you have smart bulbs pair with Alexa you can have lights come on also. The Ring Doorbell allows you to use the motion and doorbell button for theses kind of alerts. Arlo is really dropping the ball in this regard.

In fact I would buy more cameras for my system if this feature was added.  

[JayGun]

I have this working with Smartthings. Simply add your Arlo cameras to your SmartThings Hub, then add the SmartThings skill to Alexa. The Arlo cameras will be added as motion devices.

For those like me that don’t want to use SmartThings to manage the Arlo mode, just go into the Arlo app and switch your mode back to scheduled etc.

It’s awesome to have Alexa tell me “someone’s in the back yard” throughout the house when motion is detected.

[SarahMcDonald]

Any updates on this feature?